Friday, 28 March 2014

My time as cataloguing intern on the Dott case note project
is nearing an end with only two weeks to go. The majority of my time has been
spent cataloguing. However as part of the internship I have also been involved
in a number of other non-Dott related activities which have helped to broaden
my knowledge of working both in university setting and in a medical archive,
including participation in archive and conservation volunteer taster days,
attendance at seminars, visits to other archives and training in reading room
invigilation.

Working with the case notes from the Brain Injuries Unit at
Bangour General Emergency Medical Service Hospital has been
fascinating and cataloguing individual patient case files has been a great experience. I have been
able to gain skills in analysing these highly detailed medical records and
honing in on the information required for capture in the catalogue; and have
also gained valuable experience and confidence cataloguing using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and
indexing using medical subject headings. One of the many aspects I have found
interesting while working with this collection has been realising the hugely
important role Dott played as Consultant in Neurosurgery to the Army in
Scotland. As well as diagnosing and treating the large number of military
personnel sent to Bangour he also had to determine his patient’s suitability
for continued service in the armed forces. Dott had to be rigorous in his
assessments and on several occasions is quite clear that, despite recovering
from the injury or illness which resulted in their admittance to the Brain
Injuries Unit, discharge from military service and a return to their civilian
occupation would be advisable and in the best interests of either the military
or the patient and often both.

Although the information recorded in the
catalogue does not include the patients civilian occupation, this and the other
additional information about the patients including their background and
military career provided in the case notes to supplement their medical details,
has been another fascinating aspect of working with these records. This
additional information gives an insight into how the war affected the lives of
the patients, many of whom were conscripted and were performing very different
roles from their civilian life, providing a valuable record of social history
within their medical records.

As well as British military personnel the collection
contains case notes of several men from the Polish Air Forces. The Polish Air
Force was evacuated from occupied Poland to France in 1939, where units were
re-established and the Polish airmen served alongside the French. When France
was invaded in 1940 many of the Polish units went to Britain and served with
the RAF, forming successful Polish RAF squadrons that operated under RAF
command. One particular case I have come
across was that of a young Polish airman who was suffering crippling back pain
that was preventing him flying. He was operated on by Dott and was flying again
within a few weeks of his operation. He wrote to Dott expressing his gratitude
for his care and treatment saying, ‘only because of you am I able to serve in
the Air Force again.’ Also included in his case file were several Christmas
cards to Dott. While it is a bit late/early for Christmas, I thought I would
share these images of two of the cards sent by this Polish airman. One is a Polish
Air Forces postcard which shows the fin flash insignia used by the Polish Air
Force on the tail of the plane and the other is a greetings cards with the
inscription, ‘Bog sie rodzi’ (God is being born), which is the title of a
Polish Christmas Carol.

Christmas cards from LHB40 CC/2/PR3.644

The continued relationship between Dott and his patients is
evident in many of the files, with patients writing to express their thanks,
sending updates on their medical condition or asking for advice; and Dott often
writing to request information about their progress after treatment. This
correspondence displays Dott’s concern for his patients and their continued welfare
long after their discharge from his care, with exchanges sometimes spanning 15
years or more.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working with this
collection and although I have only catalogued a (very!) small proportion of
the vast c.26,650 case files I feel very lucky to had the opportunity to get to
know these records and learn about Professor Dott’s career and in particular
his and his team's valuable work during the Second World War.

Friday, 21 March 2014

Last week, we were delighted to pick up a new accession
from the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion. It consisted of 12 operation and
anaesthetic books and 8 registers of blind and partially sighted people, which
date from approximately the 1950s to 2000. The image shows a selection of the
volumes.

These records complement a number of LHSA’s existing collections
including the records of RNIB Edinburgh and Lothians (Acc 13/017), case notes relating to the eye department of the Royal
Infirmary of Edinburgh and records from the Eye, Ear and Throat Infirmary
(LHB32). The Eye Infirmary of Edinburgh was originally founded in 1834,
separately from the existing Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Cases relating to
the ear and throat were additionally served here from 1883 and the Eye Infirmary
moved to the Eye Dispensary in Cambridge Street in 1922. During this period,
some eye cases were also treated at the Royal Infirmary in Lauriston Place as
LHSA holds some eye ward books from this time. On the formation of the NHS in
1948, the Eye, Ear and Throat Infirmary as it had become came under the
control of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Associated Hospitals Board. From
1949, in patients were only treated at the Royal Infirmary, however eye out patients
continued to be treated at the Cambridge Street premises between 1949 and 1969,
until the completion of the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in 1969 when all ophthalmic
services moved to this building. The new accession, therefore, covers the period when
services for eye treatment were in transition towards the Princess Alexandra
Eye Pavilion. We hope that the records will help to provide our enquirers with a
more complete picture of eye care in Edinburgh over the years.

Friday, 14 March 2014

Less of a blog post, more of an announcement this week as we
see two new jobs in the LHSA team advertised. We’re delighted to be recruiting
for Wellcome Trust funded Project Cataloguing Archivist posts to carry out the
archival side of two projects that are already underway.

The first is an 8-month post to join Emily, our Project
Conservator, working on our fantastic UNESCO-awarded HIV/AIDS collections. 'Policies,
Postcards and Prophylactics: a project to catalogue and conserve LHSA's
UNESCO-awarded HIV/AIDS collections (1983-2010)’ began in January this year and
Emily has blogged about her work, so check out previous posts to get a flavour
of the collections and some of the conservation issues involved. So far she has
been treating collections that have already been catalogued so while Emily continues
to repair and re-house the material, the Project Cataloguing Archivist will
focus on cataloguing those collections that have yet to be listed to item
level. We’re excited to be recruiting for this crucial final piece in the
project puzzle!

The second is a 12-month position, within a project that was
started in September 2013 by, our then Project Archivist, Louise: 'Cataloguing
Norman Dott’s neurosurgical case notes (1920-1960)’. When our Archivist Laura
took a year’s leave last month, Louise was seconded to fill her role, which
means we are now looking for someone to take up cataloguing where Louise left off. Dott’s
case notes are a fascinating resource, and this project aims to make them more accessible
for research, whilst ensuring that patient confidentiality remains the highest
priority. There is more information about this project at: http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/projects/Cataloguingcasenotes.htm.

Friday, 7 March 2014

Over the past five weeks I have been working on one part of
the HIV/AIDS collections which documents the ‘Take Care’ Campaign in Edinburgh
and the Lothians. This campaign began in the late 1980s and aimed to raise
awareness among all members of the community about the causes of HIV/AIDS and
also to promote safer sex with the message “take care of the one you love”. This
was achieved through high profile events and gigs, as well as educational
programmes and providing free sexual health advice and condoms. This diverse
collection contains a wide range of materials; from modern paper materials such
as reports, educational packs and administrative files to plastic audio visual
objects and modern rubber/latex items such as balloons and condoms.

Many people assume that modern collections such as this do
not require conservation, however this is not the case, and there are already
items in this collection that are severely degraded. For example, balloon
1 in the photograph below has degraded and become extremely brittle, resulting in it becoming
fragmented when flexed during storage. The conservation of modern plastic
materials is complex as although the objects may look similar, they may not be
formed of the same materials and depending on the original composition of the plastic
object, it can degrade in different ways. For example, these four balloons (1 – 4) were stored together in the same environment, but have degraded in
completely different ways. Balloon 1 has become brittle and fragmented, balloon 2 has become tacky and stuck to a business card it was stored with, balloon 3 has hardened and balloon 4 is still relatively flexible.

Four balloons stored in the same environment that have degraded in different ways

Deterioration of plastics such as this can be caused by
either chemical or physical factors. Chemical degradation can be caused by the
interaction of plastics with light, heat, oxygen or water. These factors
provide the energy and the environment to promote destructive chemical
processes. Physical factors include degradation caused handling of the object,
for example the incorrect handling and repeated bending of a plastic doll may
result in stress fractures or breakages. Physical degradation can also be
caused by the migration of additives from the plastic object. Plastics contain
additives called plasticizers that increase the flexibility of the object.
However as the object ages, the plasticizers evaporate causing it to become
more brittle, which has occured in balloon 1. This can be particularly
problematic if the plasticizers are absorbed by another material in close
contact with the object. The photograph below shows a window sticker that has
degraded, releasing plasticizers which have in turn been absorbed by the
plastic pocket it was previously stored in, resulting in deformation of the
pocket.

Plasticizers released by the window sticker have been absorbed by the plastic pocket causing it to deform

Plastics objects not only form part of this collection, but plastics
such as ring binders and poly-pockets are also used to store many paper
materials. These materials also degrade and can adversely affect the papers
contained within them. Store-bought ring binders can be especially problematic
for archival collections as they are commonly formed from PVC
(polyvinylchloride). This type of plastic emits hydrochloric acid over time
which can be readily absorbed by paper materials and cause them to degrade. As
such all paper materials have been removed from these folders, but reference
samples have been kept separately so that the original look and function of the
materials can be recreated if necessary.

The conservation of the plastic items in the collections has
particularly caught my interest as this is a subject area that I had little
prior knowledge of and did not expect to be treating when I qualified as a
paper conservator! The production of plastics has risen dramatically over the
past 50 years, from 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to almost 100 million tonnes
in early 2000. In 1982, the production of plastic surpassed that of steel and
as such that year has been dubbed the beginning of the ‘Plastic Age’. Therefore,
the amount of plastics found in archives is growing and although research about
this subject matter is relatively small, it is a fascinating area, and I
believe that the issues surrounding the conservation of this material will
become more important in the future.

Lothian Health Services Archive holds the historically important local records of NHS hospitals and other health-related material.
We collect, preserve and catalogue these records and promote them to increase understanding of the history of health and for the benefit of all.

Use of images from LHSA collections

We can provide images from items in our collections, subject to various conditions. Images are provided for private study or non-commercial research, and cannot be used for other purposes unless you request and receive written permission from LHSA to do so.

If you wish to use any images that have been featured on this blog, please contact us at lhsa@ed.ac.uk and we will be happy to discuss permissions with you.